Here are some of the best quotes from UCLA coaches and players following the Bruins’ 45-19 loss at Stanford on Saturday:

COACH RICK NEUHEISEL (On what UCLA can improve upon)
“Everything. We need to realize we have the chance to be a good football team and we need to come back hungry to become that team.”

(On the opening drive)
“I’m irritated. We got stopped on the 1. We had two chances. We’ve got to get it in.”

(On how UCLA responded in the second half)
“We had an unbelievable amount of energy and they come out and score in two downs. I was pleased that we responded by coming down and scoring on them. The biggest thing for me was the fumbled punt. We had a real chance to make this a real game. That would have been a terrific deal to come back form a 17-point deficit to getting ourselves within a field goal or closer than that.”

OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR MIKE JOHNSON (On UCLA running (and being stopped) four times inside the 5 on the opening drive, this after passing 4-4 for 60 yards)
“You think you should be able to get one yard in three plays. You can second guess that and say we should have thrown it but it’s been our identity. We’re a running football team. You get to the 1-yard line and you got three shots, you should punch that in.”

(On the impact of not scoring on that drive)
“In a game like this, you have to cash in on that. You have a nice drive and you get down to the 1-yard line with three shots, you have to capitalize on those types of situations in a game like this.”

QUARTERBACK RICHARD BREHAUT (On the impact of the offense getting stopped at the 1-yard line on its opening drive)
“That first drive, if we would have got into the end zone, its 7-0 and the momentum is with us. And then we don’t get a third down done on the next drive. It’s those things that put us in those hole and make us have to battle back. No matter how well we play, the momentum is not in our favor. That’s something, execution-wise, that we have to get fixed.”

LINEBACKER SEAN WESTGATE (On how Stanford beat UCLA)
“We made mistakes. Stanford thrives on execution. They’re just going to keep doing what they do until you make a mistake. Our consistency was spotty at best. I can’t speak for our offense. They moved the ball. They really did. But Stanford moved the ball better.”

(On the impact of the offense getting stopped at the 1-yard line on its opening drive)
“When our offense is on the goal line and its fourth-and-1, I can tell you, to a man on defense, we’ll tell you to go for it. To a man. Whether you make it or not, we believe in ourselves to keep them down there. We didn’t do that. We had a lot of missed assignments. We missed tackles, but I don’t think that killed us. We got young safeties, lots of guys coming in and out, linebackers missing gaps. We had a lot of first-timers in coverage. It’s going to happen, especially with Andrew Luck. I could hear him making his checks on the line.”

(On what UCLA needs to do moving forward)
“It’s all in the details. We’re going to have to come together. I feel like we’ve been making strides, becoming more of a cohesive unit, more of a team. But at the end of the day, the wins and loss column is what people look at and care about. We got to become that unit. We got to have that glue between us. With that glue comes accountability. If we’re that tight, if you care much about the person next to you, you want to be accountable. When you care about that guy more than you do you, it’s not about you anymore.”

(On why UCLA doesn’t have that glue, despite all the veterans playing on defense)
“I feel like we’re close. We’ve been working towards it. It’s something we haven’t really had here, period, since I’ve been here. We were all friends, but glue is something different. Glue takes time to build and it takes a lot of trust to happen. Until we get that trust, I feel like the trust is there, now it’s just a matter of really, really making everyone is accountable. As a young guy, I’ve been there, you’re kind of like, I got next year. Well, if you don’t get it done this year, next year is not going to change.”

TAILBACK JOHNATHAN FRANKLIN (On where UCLA is at after five games)
“We have to find some consistency and we have to find our offense, make it click. Those types of things start at practice. It’s little things, as far as dropping balls, how to run the ball, it starts at practice. We have to take more initiative and play with more passion in practice.”

(On whether UCLA has closed the gap at all with Stanford after losing last year, 35-0)
“We got to stop making mistakes. We got to stop hurting ourselves. Once we do that we will win these ballgames.”

TIGHT END JOSEPH FAURIA (On whether UCLA’s offense needs to be more balanced)
“Of course. Every team is greater when there’s more balance, unless you’re the Wing-T or something like that. But we have good players on offense that are willing to make plays and willing to put their bodies out. I know the coaches trust us. We were trying to run power in the middle (on the opening drive at the goal-line). We get that nine times out of 10.”

(On the impact of getting stopped at the 1-yard line on the opening drive )
“If we did score it’d be a whole different game. We still had chances, with the fumble and the punt, things like that, mistakes that Stanford, the No. 5 team in the country doesn’t make. If we want to be like that, we got to stop having those errors.”

(On his second touchdown, in which he hurdled a Stanford defender)
“I told some of my teammates I was going to do it a couple weeks ago. I said on (that) play, if I get the ball in the flat, I’m not going to get cut. I’m going to get into the end zone. The best feeling ever was seeing the whole wide-mouth Stanford crowd looking at me.”

RECEIVER TAYLOR EMBREE (On his fumbled punt)
“I should have fair caught it. When I looked down field it was open, but then the gunners got down there pretty quick. And then I just dropped it. Its real tough. That’s the only muff I have in my career.”

(On the impact of getting stopped at the 1-yard line on the opening drive)
“It’s stuff like that, the muffed punt, the turnovers, that kill us. When you’re playing a team as good as Stanford, you cant do that. You need to make all the plays you can make.”

(On the importance of next week’s game against Washington State)
“We need a statement game, especially if we want to be the team we want to be. It’s not even just putting points on the board, it’s going out there and dominating.”

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